Football

Whitworth Ends Season at Lewis & Clark on Saturday

Nov 12, 2013

The Whitworth football team will play its 2013 season finale on Saturday at Lewis & Clark College in Portland. The game kicks off at noon and will be heard live in the Spokane area on KSBN 1230am and on KSBN.net.

Whitworth (3-4 overall, 1-2 NWC) is coming off of a hard-fought 28-21 loss to then-15th-ranked Pacific Lutheran last Saturday in the Pine Bowl.

Lewis & Clark (1-7 overall, 1-4 NWC) enjoyed a bye last Saturday. The Pioneers fell 68-28 at Pacific on November 2nd in their most recent game.

Looking for Number 100: Whitworth head coach John Tully has another chance to pick up his 100th career victory before the 2013 season comes to a close on Saturday. Tully, in his 19th season as head coach at Whitworth, earned his 99th win at Whitworth on October 26th at Puget Sound. He is 99-83 leading the Pirates. Over the past 13+ years the team is 86-49 and Tully has been named the NWC Coach of the Year three times (2001, 2006 and 2007). Tully is the winningest coach in school history, as well as the longest serving Pirate football coach. Prior to his arrival, Whitworth had suffered through 11 losing seasons in 12 years. Overall he is 130-104 in his 23rd season as a head coach. He previously was head coach at Eureka College in Illinois.

The Pirates: Whitworth hung with nationally-ranked Pacific Lutheran throughout the game and looked poised to possibly kill the Lutes' post-season hopes when the game was tied 14-14 at halftime. But PLU's defense stepped up in the second half and the Lutes went on to pull out a 28-21 victory over the Pirates in Whitworth's 2013 home finale.

Whitworth struggled to get a consistent running attack going against the Lutes and the Bucs finished with -13 yards on the ground, thanks in part to six sacks for 45 yards in losses. DJ Tripoli gained 30 rushing yards on 15 carries. Bryan Peterson hung in against the pressure to complete 25 of 31 passes for 220 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Drew Clausen caught seven of those passes for 69 yards and one score, while Wade Meyer had five receptions for 67 yards and a touchdown. Dustin Martin had one TD among his four catches for 22 yards.

Casey Monahan had another good game on defense for the Pirates, leading the team with eight total tackles (seven solo stops). Jacob Kriegbaum also had eight tackles. Trevor Cooper, still filling in as the starting middle linebacker for Nic Brockhoff, had five tackles and an interception. Kyle Davidson had a four stops, including one for loss of five yards, and an interception. Aaron Powe had the Pirates' only sack of the game.

Lars Blix averaged 32.5 yards per punt and Kyle Gracey made all three of his extra point attempts.

Seriously?: Lewis & Clark will be the Pirates' eighth opponent of 2013 who goes into the game against Whitworth having not played the Saturday before. Puget Sound and PLU were the only two teams the Bucs played in 2013 who had a game the week prior. Linfield (Oct. 19) was Whitworth's seventh consecutive opponent that had an extra week to prepare to play the Bucs. St. Scholastica, Whittier and La Verne were all playing their season-openers when they faced Whitworth. Chapman, Pacific, Willamette and Linfield were all coming off of a bye.

On the Air Again: Whitworth's games are once again being carried live this season on KSBN 1230am in Spokane. The relationship between Pirate athletics and KSBN goes back to 1994, a span of almost 20 years. Bob Castle, whose voice has become synonymous with Whitworth athletics on the radio, is back as the voice of the Pirates in 2013-14. Bob has called Whitworth games for the past 13 seasons, as well as in 1997-98. Bob has 20 years in radio and his experience as a sports broadcaster includes stints as the voice of Spokane Indians Baseball, Gonzaga University baseball and Washington State women's basketball. Former Pirate standout Matt Miethe, a four-year starter at center and current head coach at Rogers High School, will provide color analysis for seven of the games this season.

Four SWX Broadcasts: Local cable station SWX carried four of Whitworth's games this season: the non-conference games vs. Whittier (Sept. 14) and La Verne (Sept. 21), and the Northwest Conference contests with Linfield (Oct. 19) and Pacific Lutheran (Nov. 9 – Senior Day). Sam Adams and Mike Peterson will provided play by play and color analysis. SWX stands for Sports & Weather Right Now and is owned by local NBC affiliate KHQ channel 6. SWX can be seen both over-the-air and through some cable services in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene, Kennewick-Pasco-Richland, and Yakima viewership areas. In the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area, SWX is found on digital channel 6.2, on Comcast channel 306 in Spokane and Time Warner channel 306 in North Idaho.

Team Captains: The Pirate team captains in 2013 are offensive lineman Liam Brown (second straight season), defensive linemen Aaron Cochran and Brodrick Hirai and defensive back Fernando Noriega. Unfortunately for the Bucs, both Brown and Hirai have already been lost to season-ending injuries.

Thespian QB: Bryan Peterson, a junior, is in his third season as the Pirates' starting QB. Heading into this year he had completed 59.6% of his passes (256-429) for 3,182 yards with 30 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. In addition to playing football, Peterson is also a theater major who has performed in the school's major spring productions, including the Spring 2013 production of The Laramie Project.

In 2013 Peterson has completed nearly 64% of his passes for 1,751 yards with nine touchdowns and three interceptions.

DJ Takes His Turn: After spending the last two seasons as the primary back up to All-NWC running back Ronnie Thomas, DJ Tripoli has taken full advantage of his turn as the Pirates' starting running back in 2013. So far he has run for 624 yards with seven touchdowns. He is averaging 4.0 yards per carry. He has also caught a touchdown and has eight total touchdowns this season.

Cochran does Damage: Aaron Cochran is having a phenomenal senior season at defensive end for the Pirates. He is second in the Northwest Conference in tackles for loss with 12.5. Cochran's TFLs add up to 43 yards in losses for Pirate opponents in 2013.

Plundering Defense: Through nine games the Pirates have a positive turnover margin of +14 (25 takeaways, 11 giveaways), which currently ranks 10th in all of NCAA Division III and second in the NWC. The Pirates have picked off 14 passes and recovered 11 fumbles and have won the turnover battle in six games. Casey Monahan has forced three fumbles, recovered two and intercepted five passes to lead the defense. He leads the NWC in interceptions and total takeaways this season.

NWC Poll: Whitworth finished fourth in the NWC preseason coaches poll with 20 points. Defending champion Linfield finished first in the poll with five first place votes, while Pacific Lutheran was second with two first place votes. Link to NWC Football Coaches Poll.

The Pioneers:Lewis & Clark (1-7 overall, 1-4 NWC) brings the NWC's most prolific passing attack into Saturday's game with the Pirates. The Pioneers will be trying to end 2013 on a high note by sending their senior class out with a win and ending a four-game losing streak. L&C lost 68-28 at Pacific in its most recent game on November 2nd.

Chris Sulages has been at the helm of the L&C program as head coach since 2006 and he is in his 11th season on the Pioneer staff. He was the offensive coordinator in 2005 and the offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator in 2003 and 2004. His won-loss record at L&C is 19-53. In 2011 he led the Pioneers to a 7-2 record, their best season in a generation.

Senior QB Keith Welch has been one of the most dynamic players within the NWC over the last four years. In 2013 he has completed 58.1% of his passes for 2,407 yards with 24 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. He leads the NWC in passing yards and passing touchdowns. He also leads in total offense as he has run for 391 yards and six scores. His favorite target is senior WR Andrew Frisina, who leads the league with 80 receptions for 871 yards and nine touchdowns. Fellow wideout Curtis Shirey has added 39 grabs for 553 yards and five touchdowns. RB Jacob Costantino is a weapon out of the backfield with 46 catches for 358 yards and four scores.

Sophomore LB Stein Retzlaff leads the L&C defense with 81 total tackles. Sophomore lineman Darius Grays has three sacks. Junior DB Lincoln Boyd leads the team in tackles for loss (five for 13 yards) and takeaways (four interceptions and one fumble recovery). The Lewis & Clark defense has allowed 52.0 points per game and 499.2 yards per contest.

Last Meeting: All-NWC running back Ronnie Thomas ran for 251 yards and three touchdowns to lead Whitworth to a 37-20 win over Lewis & Clark in the season finale for both teams last year in Spokane. Whitworth trailed 12-10 at halftime and outscored the Pioneers 27-8 in the second half.

Whitworth finished with a significant statistical advantage, thanks largely to the big day by Thomas. The Pirates ended with a 504-370 edge in total offense, outrushing L&C 345-114. Whitworth had 32 first downs to 19 for the Pioneers and finished with a 41:26 – 18:34 edge in time of possession. Bryan Peterson completed 14 of 27 passes for 159 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. He also ran for 96 yards on 17 attempts. WR Jake DeGooyer ended his Pirate career with eight catches for 98 yards.

For L&C, Keith Welch completed 24 of 37 for 256 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He also ran for 79 yards on 16 carries. Curtis Shirey caught seven passes out of the backfield for 39 yards and also ran for a score.

The Series: Whitworth leads the all-time series 30-13 and had won 12 in a row before 2011. The Pirates won 37 last year in Spokane. The Pioneers won 30-22 in 2011, the last time the game was played in Portland 38-20. Whitworth won the 2006 game 70-3, the largest margin of victory in the series. The l biggest margin of victory for the Pioneers over the Pirates was 49-26 in 1993.